The 14-year-old girl buried her face in her grandmother's
shoulder as a police captain detailed the day the girl's mother died.
Sabrina Alas occasionally peeked out into the crowd at Friday's news conference at the LAPD's Van Nuys station, but mostly she hid as Capt. Lillian Carranza laid out the story.

About 8 a.m. Tuesday, Osmar Gomez called 911
to report that he and his girlfriend, Klaudia Yemina
Alas, 32, had been stabbed.

Officers found Gomez, 41, bleeding from his neck in an alley near the 6600 block of Kester Avenue in Van
Nuys. Alas was lying motionless on the passenger side of Gomez's black Dodge truck. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

“I could not believe something like this could happen to
her,” Alas' father, Sergio Acajabon, said. “Nobody would ever have a reason to harm her.”

An Oxnard man was sentenced this month to 114 years to life in state prison for fatally shooting a valet worker in the chest at a Pico Rivera nightclub, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

A jury on Jan. 23 found Sebastian Zazueta, a 22-year-old Latino, guilty of killing Melvin Ernesto Cortez-Ortega, 37. Zazueta was also found guilty of four counts of attempted murder, according to prosecutors.

On Sept. 22, 2013, Zazueta and his friends went to watch a performance at El Rodeo nightclub when they got into an argument with security guards and were kicked out, prosecutors said.

Cortez-Ortega was working as a valet shortly after 2:30 a.m. when Zazueta tried to get back into the club to use the restroom. The security guard refused to let Zazueta into the club and he returned with a gun and shot at the employees ...

Ricardo Nunez was trimming a tree outside his Echo Park home on a Sunday morning last month when a white truck pulled up and a person inside opened fire, killing the 35-year-old father.

Ray Martinez, the LAPD detective investigating the case, is seeing fewer such fatal drive-by shootings. When Martinez goes behind the yellow tape, he's more commonly working on cases where a gunman has walked straight up to the victim — a walk-up shooting.

As gang culture has become less overt, the killings have become more targeted — and at the same time more chilling.

"They get to see the whole reaction," Martinez said. "It seems more daring."

Jorja Leap, a UCLA anthropologist who studies gang culture, agreed. "In a walk-up, you see who you're killing," Leap said. "You're going to listen to what they say as you shoot them."

A Long Beach man was sentenced Wednesday to 85 years to life in prison for the 2012 murder of a 37-year-old father of two and the attempted murder of a police officer.

Darryl Harnish, 67, was convicted in February of killing Terry Alexander and shooting at Long Beach police Officer Arthur Vega.

Shortly after midnight on April 19, 2012, Harnish yelled racial slurs at three black men sitting on a bus bench in Long Beach, according to prosecutors, who called the case "racially motivated," although no hate-crime allegations were filed.

Alexander rode his bike toward Harnish, who opened fire. Alexander was struck and died at a hospital.

Vega was about a block away when he heard the gunshots. When he got to the scene and ordered Harnish to stop, Harnish fired twice, hitting the hood and windshield of Vega’s car.

On Monday night, LAPD Det. Young Mun watched a common scene unfold outside a dry cleaning shop off East Florence Avenue in South L.A.

As the sun set, a mother slid out of an SUV and walked toward a waiting crowd. Blue and white candles, some lighted, flickered on the sidewalk below a banner bearing the face of her 19-year-old son.

"Nobody wants to talk, and everybody is on mute," J. LaKiesha Marshall told the crowd. "This is all senseless, you all. We need to stop this."

Marshall's son, Justin Logie, was gunned down about 2 a.m. on March 20 only a few feet from where she stood. Police said that at least 100 people were gathered nearby for an event when Logie was shot. By the time police arrived, no one had stuck around to talk. A local television station interviewed a man who said that ...

Jason Antonio Galvez, a 19-year-old Latino, was shot and
killed Monday, March 23, near the intersection of South Inglewood Avenue and
West 104th Street in Lennox, according to Los Angeles County coroner’s records.

Shortly before 2:30
p.m., Galvez was riding a bicycle in the area when a gunman got out of a
vehicle and confronted him, said L.A. County Sheriff's Deputy Juanita Navarro-Suarez.

The gunman fired several times, striking Galvez, then ran back to the car where a driver was waiting.

Galvez was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead
at 3:05 p.m., said Ed Winter, assistant chief of investigations for the coroner’s
office.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Sheriff’s
Department Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500. Those who wish to remain
anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.

A gang member was sentenced this month to 100 years to life in prison for killing a 25-year-old deacon outside a church in Westlake, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Pedro Martinez, a 26-year-old Latino, was sentenced March 13, according to prosecutors. Martinez was convicted in December of one count of first-degree murder in the shooting of Andres Ordonez, who was trying to stop a woman from vandalizing a church.

Martinez was also convicted of attempted murder and felony vandalism. A jury also found gang and gun allegations true.

On Nov. 4, 2012, Janeth Lopez, a 24-year-old Latina gang member, was allegedly spray painting the walls of Iglesia de Paz church when Ordonez and a parishioner came outside, according to prosecutors.

Martinez stepped out of a nearby vehicle and opened fire, killing Ordonez and wounding the churchgoer. Lopez and Martinez fled the scene in the ...

James Konwall Daniels Jr., a 51-year-old black man died Wednesday, March 18, five days after he was shot in the 2100 block of East 102nd Street in Watts, according to Los Angeles County coroner’s records.

About 8:40 p.m. on Friday, March 13, Daniels was sitting in a minivan talking to a 24-year-old woman and a 35-year-old man when a person walked up and opened fire, said LAPD Det. Dave Garrido. All three people were struck.

Daniels was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead March 18 at 11:20 p.m. The other two people are expected to survive.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Criminal Gang Homicide Division at (213) 485-4341. Those who wish to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477.

Yesenia DeLeon, a 35-year-old Latina, was shot and killed Wednesday, March
18, in the 300 block of West 56th Street in South Park, according to Los
Angeles County coroner’s records.

About 7 p.m., DeLeon was shot in the bedroom of a home, said LAPD Det.
Richard Arciniega. Jose Alberto Perez, an 18-year-old Latino, has been charged
with one count of murder and one count of assault with a deadly weapon.

Authorities believe Perez was waiting with a shotgun in his stepfather's
home when DeLeon arrived. DeLeon was the stepfather's girlfriend, and Perez was
apparently looking for DeLeon's sister, whom he had animosity for. Perez
mistook DeLeon for her sister, Arciniega said.

After shooting DeLeon once in the face, prosecutors said in a news release,
Perez went outside a fired another round.